Don't Burn Anything
by Kyrri
Summary: Pyro comes to the conclusion that winning Bobby's heart will be impossible. Let's see if Bobby agrees... (Warnings!!!!! SLASH!!! M/M-pairing and I have warned you!)


Title: Don't Burn Anything Author: Kyrri Author's E-mail: kyrrissean@hotmail.com Rating: PG Series: None. Summary: Pyro comes to the conclusion that winning Bobby's heart will be impossible. Let's see if Bobby agrees. Disclaimer: Not mine, why I oughta! *sees glares from Marvel representatives* Um, yes. Not mine at all - they belong to these kind gentlemen. *points at Marvel* So please don't sue! *glaces pointedly at Marvel legal representation* Warnings: Um. slash, m/m pairings etc. No character death so that's got to count for something. Slight Rogue-bashing. Spoilers: Yes, slight spoilers for X2, in the form of a couple of lines I stole and had the boys reminisce about. Archive: Ask and you shall receive. Notes: This is my absolute first try at writing this pairing! Forgive any discrepancies in character. This is movie-verse. Also - Rogue-lovers tread lightly, I hate her and it might come out in my fiction.  
  
**********  
  
'Don't burn anything,' Bobby's words echoed through Pyro's mind as he lay on his back in the tent they were going to share that night. His lighter clicked closed again for the hundredth time since he'd lain down.  
  
It had been an idle comment on his friend's part, but it had cut deep, the look Iceman had given him grinding salt into the open wounds. Johnny sighed. Maybe if he dyed a lock of his hair white and cultivated an irritating screech of a Southern drawl Bobby would notice him again.  
  
Yeah, right, it was time he faced facts. Robert Drake was in love with a 'lovely' girl and he was stuck in the perpetual hell of having to watch.  
  
His lighter clicked open again, his thumb drawing across the tumblers, letting fire spark to life. He stared at it considering, feeling each flicker of the flame, each slight alteration in the air, heat and energy of it. He felt the fire almost as though it was part of him - it felt so natural to nudge it to burn hotter, fiercer, brighter. To mould it into any shape he desired.  
  
'You shouldn't play with fire.' Someone had told him that a long time ago - some wannabe parental figure. Silently the fire danced across his palm as he watched, gently licking at his fingers, the outlines of a familiar face just barely visible within the forking tongues of flickering light. His expression turned thoughtful as he watched the flame-image of his best friend come to life upon his palm.  
  
Why hadn't that someone warned him about ice? It burned as fiercely, after all. It burned more fiercely, in fact, if you asked him.  
  
John groaned as he flicked his lighter closed again and snuffed out the life of the fire-portrait, before turning onto his stomach. He was in love with his best friend, but his best friend wouldn't even look at him twice. His best friend was too busy tripping over his own feet staring at the Southern Belle.  
  
Before Rogue came into the picture Bobby had been an entirely different person. They'd been close then, Pyro had been able to believe that there might have been something more between them. Rogue had dashed any such hope mercilessly.  
  
The zipper of the entrance flap scratched across the material and he turned onto his side to watch as Bobby slipped inside, pulling the flap close behind him again. He studied his friend as he stood with his back to him, noting the tense set of Bobby's shoulders and the slight sigh that escaped him, before he turned around.  
  
"Hey," Iceman said, before moving to his sleeping bag and flopping down onto it.  
  
"Hey," Johnny answered softly. An uncomfortable silence stretched between them as they simply looked at each other. Pyro hated it. Something had happened between them. Some unnameable thing was killing their friendship.  
  
Not unnameable - John knew exactly what it was. It had large green eyes, reddish hair and could suck the life out of you with a touch.  
  
"I don't like uncomfortable silences," Pyro muttered, causing Bobby to grin.  
  
"Yeah, but I don't see a CD-player around here," he retorted.  
  
Pyro smiled back at him, before silence fell between them again like a veil, causing his smile to fade. Nervously Johnny resorted to clicking his lighter open and closed repeatedly once more.  
  
Bobby's hand closed over his, stilling the nervous movement and making John look up into clear blue eyes. "What's happened to us, John? It wasn't always like this."  
  
Johnny glanced down at the hand covering his own for a moment, before looking up at Bobby again. "I." he fell silent, shaking his head, not knowing what to say.  
  
"Have I done something wrong?" Bobby asked, innocent eyes staring at him imploringly, begging Pyro to tell him what's wrong.  
  
Johnny snorted, looking away and to the side, anywhere but at his friend and those baby-blues.  
  
"John?" Bobby implored again.  
  
"You could say that," Pyro muttered, not really wanting his friend to hear.  
  
"Well?" Bobby asked. John looked up at his tone of voice and quirked an eyebrow at him.  
  
"What did I do?" Bobby practically whined and for a moment anger sparked in John, not entirely at his friend, but at the entire situation and the seeming hopelessness of it.  
  
Fire burned in his eyes as he glared at his friend. "I think it's sharing a tent with Storm and Jean. Then again I don't think you could have touched her long enough to do her." John practically hissed, sounding more bitter than angry.  
  
Bobby fell back, almost as if he'd been slapped. He stared at John as though he'd grown an extra head, before mischief sparked in his eyes as he came over the shock of Pyro's words. "If I didn't know better, I'd say you were jealous."  
  
"And what if I am?" John asked, agile fingers starting to click his lighter open and closed once more.  
  
"You never even looked at Rogue twice. You should have told me if you had the hots for her." Bobby retorted.  
  
John glared at him. "You're a blind moron, you know?" Pyro paused for a moment, before continuing, clearly emphasizing each word of his next sentence. "I don't want anything to do with Rogue." Her name came out sounding more like a curse than anything else.  
  
Bobby stared at him, a puzzled expression on his face, a small frown playing across his forehead. "I don't get it," he stated.  
  
John sighed in exasperation. He knew Bobby wasn't the brightest pea in the pod, but this was ridiculous. "You don't, do you?" he asked softly.  
  
Bobby just shook his head.  
  
Johnny sighed again, Bobby was going to make him spell it out and he wasn't sure if he was ready for that, but he'd come this far, he might as well go all of the way. "I don't want Rogue, Bobbo. I want you. I'm in love with you, but you're too blind to notice and I've been too much of a coward to say anything."  
  
Bobby blinked, the wheels visibly turning in his head as he processed this and pure shock was written across his features.  
  
Pyro sighed for the third time before turning over onto his other side and facing the wall. He didn't want to see his friend rejecting him. He cursed himself for the worst kind of idiot for ever opening his big mouth. Things would be even worse now - at least Bobby was his friend before, but now.  
  
Seconds passed like hours between them as John stared at the smooth material of the tent-wall, the endless clicking of his lighter still for once as he repeated his scorning mantra, calling himself a fool, over and over again.  
  
A gentle hand closed over his shoulder, making him glance up at Bobby. He began to open his mouth to apologize; to try and rectify the harm he had caused to their friendship.  
  
But Bobby spoke before he could. "Did you mean it?"  
  
Pyro stared at him quizzically, but Bobby repeated the words, determined to get an answer. "When you said you love me. Did you mean it?"  
  
John's stare became a glare as he sat up, shrugging Bobby's hand off of his shoulder and answering angrily, "You think I'd joke about something like that?" He didn't have to sit here and let Iceman mock his feelings for him.  
  
The grin that broke across Bobby's face would have been enough to outshine the sun and made Pyro's anger evaporate. "No." Bobby said simply, before pulling him close and kissing him breathless.  
  
Pyro stared at Bobby, stunned, when his friend finally pulled back. "What was that?" Johnny practically choked on his surprise as he answered.  
  
"That's me telling you I love you back," Bobby said before trying to go in for another kiss, but John stopped him.  
  
"What about Rogue?" John asked, making Bobby frown. But Iceman was smiling again not even a second later, blue eyes sparkling.  
  
"You're much cuter than Rogue and that accent of hers was starting to get on my nerves anyway." Pyro jabbed the madly grinning Iceman in the shoulder.  
  
"This is serious, Bobby."  
  
"Yeah, I know." Bobby answered, his grin deflating. "I don't love her, John. Don't really know why I went after her in the first place." He paused, considering. "It's just that I wanted what I thought I'd never have and it seemed kinda right. I mean, Rogue can't touch anyone; I wouldn't ever have had her either."  
  
Pyro frowned. "What was it you thought you'd never have?"  
  
"You." Bobby answered, simply, making John's eyes go wide. "I loved you since the first day I met you. You just never seemed interested."  
  
"Then why pull the bloody idiot act and say I should of told you if I had the hots for Rogue." Pyro was angry again, he'd been so sure Bobby would reject him, especially after he played the village idiot so convincingly.  
  
"Just too much to hope you'd be jealous over me." Bobby answered, grinning sheepishly.  
  
Pyro shook his head. Bobby had a way of disarming his anger instantly, whether it was with a word or a look it didn't matter. You just couldn't stay mad at Robert Drake.  
  
"What are you gonna do then?" Pyro asked.  
  
Bobby sighed. "Guess I'm gonna have to tell her the truth. She deserves that much."  
  
John nodded, he didn't know what to say. Well he knew what he wanted to say, but he was sure that running out of the tent and yelling, 'Bobby's mine' at the top of his lungs wouldn't go over too well with the X-Men.  
  
Bobby smiled at him, that mischievous sparkle back in his eyes as he spoke. "But before I say anything to Rogue there's something I wanna do first."  
  
John smiled back at him, Bobby's smiles where always so infectious, after all. It was his turn to play the idiot. "Yeah. What's that?"  
  
Bobby's grin deepened as he cupped Pyro's jaw and brought their faces so close together that John could feel the warm air from his friend's breath against his lips. "I'm sure you can guess," Bobby breathed, before kissing him again.  
  
Johnny didn't pull away this time, but let himself be engulfed by the kiss, opening his mouth to grant Bobby entrance to deepen it, his hands sliding around Iceman's waist and pulling them even closer together.  
  
"Love you," Bobby whispered against his lips as the kiss broke, leaving Pyro feeling empty. He wanted so much more, but they had time, he was sure.  
  
"Love you more," John said, teasingly as his hand slid under his friend's shirt, his fingers playing across Bobby's stomach before trailing upwards and coming to rest against his chest.  
  
Bobby smiled, his thumb trailing lightly over Pyro's cheek. "We'll just have to see about that."  
  
End. 


End file.
